High Temperature Die Attach

Nanocomposites, specifically polymer nanocomposites can have potential microelectronic applications in a wide range of areas which includes resistors, inductors, capacitors, lasers, low loss dielectric, waveguide, thermal interface materials, etc. Most of these nanocomposites used nanoparticles and micro particles as filler materials to tune the physical and electrical or thermo-mechanical properties.

The use of nanowires or high aspect ratio structures are recently been investigated. The use of high aspect ratio structures has one obvious benefit and that is its ability to achieve low percolation threshold in a nanocomposite compared to nanoparticles. The down side is the composite material may not be as flexible as the nanoparticle infused nanocomposites. Carbon nanotube (CNT) nanocomposites may be the exception where due to its ultra-high aspect ratio the tubes are flexible enough and until a certain percentage of inclusion the nanocomposites made using CNT as filler can have similar flexibility and modulus as nanoparticle filled nanocomposites. Advanced Energy Materials team is actively developing different types of nanocomposite materials for packaging applications e.g. electrical interconnection, thermal interface, die attach materials, etc. as well as in sensor applications.

The following SEM images shows the Ag film and Ag-carbon nanotube film deposited on SiC Schottky diodes as die attach materials.